The accumulation of capital is historically related to producing and appropriating space, infrastructures, land, and natural resources. Consequently, space and society are mutually co-produced, and the contemporary phase of rentier capitalism produces and is produced by spaces that primarily serve the extraction of rents.

In Latin America, powerful economic actors referred to as "economic groups" largely control and shape the production of space. Through networks of companies that are linked by long-term formal and informal ties, yet have remained legally independent, these economic groups are able to coordinate their actions and accumulate wealth.